scholarly journals Agri-Food Trade Competitiveness: A Review of the Literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11235
Author(s):  
Tamás Mizik

Being competitive in the international agri-food trade is an important aim of every country. It should be noted that this term has neither a commonly accepted definition nor a synthetized index to quantify it. The most commonly used indices in the international literature are the Balassa index and its modified versions (revealed trade advantage, revealed competitiveness, normalized revealed comparative advantage, and revealed symmetric comparative advantage) and different export and/or import-related indices (e.g., the Grubel–Lloyd index or the trade balance index). Based on a systematic review of the literature, these measurements were identified along with the major factors suggested for higher agri-food trade competitiveness. It seems that supportive legislation and/or (trade) policy is the most crucial factor, followed by higher value-added/more sophisticated goods, and high, efficient, and profitable production. Although the EU and its member states were overrepresented in the analyzed literature, the candidate countries, as well as other important trading partners of the EU, e.g., Canada, China, or the ASEAN countries, were also analyzed. Thus, some of these findings may be generalized.

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (No. 3) ◽  
pp. 101-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Török ◽  
A. Jámbor

In 2004 and 2007, twelve New Member States (NMS) joined the European Union (EU), causing several changes in the field of agriculture. One of the major changes was the transformation of the national agri-food trade. The aim of the paper is to analyse the effects of the EU accession on the NMS agri-food trade, especially considering the revealed comparative advantages. The results suggest that the intensity of the NMS agri-food trade has increased significantly after the accession, though there was a serious deterioration in the NMS agri-food trade balance in most cases. It has also become evident that the NMS agri-food trade was highly concentrated by country and by product, though the concentration has not changed significantly after the EU accession. Moreover, our analyses highlight one of the most important characteristics of the NMS agri-food trade structure – the focus on the agri-food raw materials in export together with the agri-food processed products in import. As to the NMS agri-food trade specialisation, the diversity among member states becomes apparent. Almost all countries experienced a decrease in their comparative advantage after the accession, though it still remained at an acceptable level in most cases. As for the stability of the comparative advantage, the results suggest a weakening trend, underpinned by the convergence of the pattern of revealed comparative advantage. By estimating the survival function to the sample, it can be observed that the accession has radically changed the survival time of agri-food trade, meaning that the revealed comparative advantage has not turned out to be persistent in the period analysed. From the policy perspective, there is a clear need for structural changes in the NMS agriculture and agri-food sector in order to tackle the negative tendencies of the national agri-food trade. The most important long-term goal should be the production and export of higher value-added processed products based on domestic raw materials.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-37
Author(s):  
Deimantė Krisiukėnienė ◽  
Vaida Pilinkienė

AbstractResearch purpose. The research purpose is to assess and compare the competitiveness of the EU creative industries’ export.Design/Methodology/Approach. The article is organised as follows: Section 1 presents a short theoretical conception of creative industries; Section 2 presents the theoretical background of trade competitiveness indices; Section 3 introduces the research data set, method and variables; Section 4 discusses the results of the revealed comparative advantage index analysis; and the final section presents the conclusions of the research. It should be noted that the research does not cover all possible factors underlying the differences in the external sector performance and thus may need to be complemented with country-specific analysis as warranted. Methods of the research include theoretical review and analysis, evaluation of comparative advantage indices and clustering.Findings. The analysis revealed that the EU countries may gain competitiveness because of the globalisation effects and the development of creative industries. The increase in the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index during the period 2004–2017 shows rising EU international trade specialisation in creative industries. According to dynamic RCA index results, France, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain has competitive advantage in creative industries sectors and could be specified as ‘rising stars’ according to dynamic of their export.Originality/Value/Practical implications. A creative industries analysis is becoming increasingly relevant in scientific research. Fast globalisation growth affects the processes in which closed economies together with their specific sectors are no longer competitive in the market because productivity of countries as well as particular economic sectors depends on international trade liberalisation, technology and innovation. Scientific literature, nevertheless, contains a gap in the area of international trade competitiveness research in creative industries sector.


2009 ◽  
Vol 55 (No. 8) ◽  
pp. 375-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Qineti ◽  
M. Rajcaniova ◽  
E. Matejkova

The paper investigates comparative advantages and competitiveness of Slovak and the EU 27 agri-food trade in markets of two countries: Russia and Ukraine. Our aim is to see the dynamics of the agri-food trade for the analyzed countries especially in the post-accession period. Applying a trade dataset from the EUROSTAT and based on the approach applied by Bojnec and Fertő (2006), we describe the pattern of agri-food trade in Slovakia and the EU using the Balassa index. The extent of trade specialization exhibits a declining trend in the country. It has lost comparative advantage for a number of product groups over time. The indices of specialization have tended to converge. For the particular product groups, the indices display a greater variation. They are stable for the product groups with comparative disadvantage, but the product groups with strong comparative advantage show a significant variation. There are also shown different tendencies for different markets i.e. the trade patterns between the Slovak Republic and the EU 27 with Russia and Ukraine.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 9860
Author(s):  
Tamás Mizik ◽  
Ákos Szerletics ◽  
Attila Jámbor

Agri-food trade competitiveness analyses are relatively understudied in the empirical literature with many countries/regions missing. The novelty of this paper to analyze the agri-food export competitiveness patterns of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), thereby aiming to fill this gap in the literature. Our research questions include which countries and products are competitive in the ASEAN region in agri-food trade; whether raw materials or processed products are more competitive; whether regional or global agri-food trade is more competitive and how persistent competitiveness is in the long run. The paper is based on ASEAN–ASEAN and ASEAN–world agri-food trade flows from 2010 to 2018, thereby global and regional competitiveness patterns have become visible. Results suggest that Myanmar (18.88), Laos (8.21) and the Philippines (5.36) have the highest levels of agri-food trade competitiveness in the world market, while in regional markets, Laos (17.17), Cambodia (15.46) and Myanmar (12.39) were the most competitive. Both raw materials, as well as processed products, are generally competitive, and regional trade, in general, was more competitive than global trade for the majority of the countries. However, results suggest a generally decreasing trend in keeping these competitive positions, which is also supported by the duration tests. Survival chances of 98% at the beginning of the period fell to 0–25% by the end of the period, significant at all levels, suggesting that a generally fierce competition exists for ASEAN countries in global as well as regional agri-food trade.


This study looks into Indonesia’s participation in fragmented structures within the Global Value Chain. By using a global input-output dataset and splitting gross exports into distinctive elements of value-added, the study measures vertical specialization of Indonesia against its four largest trading partners (NAFTA, East Asia, European Union and ASEAN) covering 29 countries for three periods: 1997, 2004 and 2012. Value-added is computed according to the initial source country and in the last destination. The paper also compares Indonesia to its ASEAN partners. The results show that Indonesia moved from exporting 50% of its value-added through finished products in 1997 to being a supplier of intermediates goods in 2012 (nearly 60% of its value-added). Foreign inputs in Indonesian exports account for 12%, a lower share versus ASEAN regional partners (35%) who are more vertically integrated. A total of 21% of Indonesian goods will be further exported to third countries. The degree of vertical integration in Indonesia in 2012 is 32.3%, up from 26% in 1997. Indonesia advanced in integration with East Asia and ASEAN countries (region), while it lowered its share of value-added traded with the North America and the Europe. Indonesia gained more than any other ASEAN partner in intra-regional trade


2003 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-399
Author(s):  
I. Fertő

The evolving pattern of Hungary's agri-food trade is analysed using recently developed empirical procedures based on the classic Balassa index and its symmetric transformation. The extent of trade specialisation exhibits a declining trend; Hungary has lost comparative advantage for a number of product groups over time. The indices of specialisation have also tended to converge. For particular product groups, the indices display a less persistent pattern. They are stable for product groups with comparative disadvantage, but product groups with weak to strong comparative advantage show significant variation. The results reinforce the finding of a general decrease in specialisation, but do not support the idea of self-reinforcing mechanisms, emphasised strongly in much of the endogenous growth and trade literature.


2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-62
Author(s):  
Mirela-Adriana Rusali

Research has focused on the analysis of the Romania’s agri-food comparative advantages based on the indices of trade specialization assessed pre- and post-accession to the EU. The method of calculation of the specialization degree index used the original Lafay index adapted on the agricultural sector. The index allows the assessment of the contribution of each product in relation to the corresponding importance in trade, which provides the ranking of products by their level of competitiveness on the international markets. The index measures the contribution of each Romanian agricultural product, aggregated by the chapters of the Combined Nomenclature at 2 digit aggregation level, to the total agri-food trade, within the period 2004-2010. The research results indicate, for the analyzed period, a decrease of the specialization level and a loss in trade diversification of the Romanian products. The detailed results provide a hierarchy of the agri-food products in relation to the highest specialization level demonstrated in Romania’s foreign trade relations. Key words: agri-food trade, competitiveness, specialization index.


In this paper, primarily the export specialisation pattern of Vietnam has been examined from the perspective of domestic value added exports. In addition, an effort has been made to identify presence of exaggeration in gross exports measures of industries level competitiveness. Empirical findings suggest that the export specialisation of Vietnam has reversed, and there is presence of exaggeration in the estimates of comparative advantage of ‘human capital and technology intensive’ industries that has also caused in ballooning up their shares in gross exports. Such pattern has arisen because intra-industry trade has become increasingly significant in Vietnam. Received 11th March 2019; Revised 17th October 2019, Accepted 20th October 2019


2006 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-43
Author(s):  
Sándor Richter

The order and modalities of cross-member state redistribution as well as the net financial position of the member states are one of the most widely discussed aspects of European integration. The paper addresses selected issues in the current debate on the EU budget for the period 2007 to 2013 and introduces four scenarios. The first is identical to the European Commission's proposal; the second is based on reducing the budget to 1% of the EU's GNI, as proposed by the six net-payer countries, while maintaining the expenditure structure of the Commission's proposal. The next two scenarios represent radical reforms: one of them also features a '1% EU GNI'; however, the expenditures for providing 'EU-wide value-added' are left unchanged and it is envisaged that the requisite cuts will be made in the expenditures earmarked for cohesion. The other reform scenario is different from the former one in that the cohesion-related expenditures are left unchanged and the expenditures for providing 'EU-wide value-added' are reduced. After the comparison of the various scenarios, the allocation of transfers to the new member states in terms of the conditions prevailing in the different scenarios is analysed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document